Today's Features
BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

On Hold with the IRS. On the Hook with Clients.

A shrinking workforce leaves tax professionals spending more time pursuing answers and explaining delays.

Emily Aprea, NAEA: “On hold for up to two hours, only to be disconnected”

By CPA Trendlines

Despite the IRS’s insistence it’s processing 98% of the returns it receives, practitioners are reporting two-hour phone waits, authorizations that take weeks to post and client problems that remain unresolved after they finally reach an employee.

MORE Tax | Logan Graf: Build a Modern Accounting Business, Not a Job | Jason Ackerman: Roth Mistakes That Cost Clients the Most | The Top Tip for Reviewing Tax Returns

The problem, apparently, is the difference between routine e-filed processing and what happens when a case needs an actual human.

New oversight reports and practitioner complaints show an agency that moves enormous volumes of returns while struggling to clear exceptions.

For accounting firms, those exceptions mean repeated calls, delayed access to records and more time explaining why a filed return has not produced a finished case.

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CHARTS & GRAPHS

Grant Thornton-CBIZ Deal: $43 Million in Golden Parachutes

Under CEO Grisko, stock runs up from $10 to $88. But that was before Marcum.

CBIZ execs stand to gain $43 million with the GT transaction.

By CPA Trendlines

CBIZ shares closed at $10.42 on March 9, 2016, the day Jerome P. “Jerry” Grisko Jr. became chief executive. Grant Thornton is now offering $55 a share in cash for the company. A shareholder who simply held through Grisko’s tenure would be looking at a 428% increase in the share price, or about 17.4% compounded annually through the July offer.

MORE Special Report on the CBIZ-Grant Thornton Deal: 
      1. Fatal Attraction: How the Marcum Deal Set Up CBIZ for the Grant Thornton Takeover
      2. CBIZ Tells Grant Thornton No, No, No, Before Saying Yes
      3. Grant Thornton Flexes PE Muscle in CBIZ Deal
      4. CBIZ: Spanning 2 Rollup Eras in 2 Centuries
      5. $55 a Share: Who Won, Who Lost in CBIZ’s 29-Year Rollup
MORE Private Equiity

So, is Grisko worth the $7.1 million CBIZ reports as his total 2025 compensation? Or the $22 million with the Grant Thornton deal? Over the long haul, there is a pretty good case for yes. Marcum makes the answer considerably messier.

Stock price hits $88 high with Marcum deal in 2024. Then the bills come due in 2025. Grant Thornton offers $55 in July.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

John LaMancuso: K1x Bets $175 Million to Beat the K-1 Bottleneck

Can AI bring order to one of tax’s most stubborn problems?

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

By Seth Fineberg
For CPA Trendlines

K1x is putting $175 million in new investment behind an expansion of its K-1 technology platform, with plans to accelerate product development, broaden its offerings and build a more standardized system for managing partnership tax data.

MORE K1x: K1x Secures $175 Million for Private Markets AI Tax Tech | Private Market Tax Is Heading for a Collision | The 3-Part Framework Firms Are Using to Fix K-1 Chaos | Why the Future of Tax Isn’t Compliance—It’s Timing | How to Turn K1 Problems into Profits with A.I. Automation | Break the K-1 Bottleneck | AI Tax App Crashes Financial Stocks on Wall Street | MORE A.I. | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

CEO John LaMancuso says the company is pushing beyond automating individual K-1 tasks. K1x wants to connect K-1 creation and aggregation into a unified platform that can move tax data among CPA firms, investment funds and investors with less manual handling.

“Start with the bottleneck, not the technology,” LaMancuso says.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

42 Hot AI Firms Raise $1.23 Billion in New 2026 Funding

Wall Street places big money on both sides of the bet for and against accounting firms.

The top ten of 42 firms identified by CPA Trendlines raise 75% of the new money so far this year.

By CPA Trendlines Research

With $1.23 billion invested so far this year, 42 new AI-powered tech companies, from pre-seed startups to growth-stage platforms, are vying for a place at the table where the future of tax and accounting will be decided.

MORE AITech and Adoption: Buying AI Is Easy. Rebuilding the Firm Is Hard. | Trent Yesberg: How AI Re-Builds Accounting Firms | The AI Demo Is Easy. The Rollout Gets Complicated. | If AI Is Saving Time, Why Are You Still Working Late? | Intuit, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer: Accountants Question AI Promises | David Marquis: AI Can Do More Work but Auditors Must Make the Call | AI Accountants Cut Costs per Task to 21 cents from $10.35 | Your Next Hire Might Not Be an Accountant | “Set It and Forget It” Is Not an AI Strategy | Kenji Kuramoto: When AI Does the Work, What Are Firms Selling?

They’ve captured the serious attention of both the fintech cognoscenti and the tax and accounting avant-garde. Some build the tools that help tax and accounting firms handle more work. Others are taking the other side of the bet, selling tax and accounting services themselves, rolling up firms that do, or selling bookkeeping with no human bookkeepers.

To be sure, the bets are anything but certain.

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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Billions in Debt Decisions Dog CBIZ-Grant Thornton Deal

CBIZ latest quarterly report

Grant Thornton plans $2 billion in junk bonds at a steeper price than CBIZ was paying.

By CPA Trendlines Research

After a mountain of debt sent tax and accounting consolidator CBIZ looking for a suitor, Grant Thornton stepped up. Now Grant Thornton itself is looking to place $2.25 billion in junk bonds to help pay for the $5 billion deal.

MORE Special Report on the CBIZ-Grant Thornton Deal: 

GT’s new junk-bond load comes on top of more than $7 billion the firm is reportedly already carrying and costs about 4 points more than the CBIZ bank debt it’s replacing.

The CBIZ saga, begun in the first rollup era of the 1990s, comes to a head next week when shareholders vote on the $55-a-share cash offer from Grant Thornton Advisors, the private equity-backed nonattest platform.

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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Crossing the Chasm from CAS to Advisory

silhouette of man leaping from one cliff to another

Client needs evolve with their businesses.

By Hitendra Patil
Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide

Again, what is the difference between CAS and CAAS? Many firms feel stuck in the middle, offering advisory in theory but not in execution. That gap is the CAAS-Chasm. This article outlines the cycle that causes advisory initiatives to stall and helps you recognize the signs in your own firm. It’s the first step to breaking through.

MORE by Hitendra Patil
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Client accounting and advisory services (CAAS) is a fusion of traditional accounting services with advisory services that emerge from core accounting work. Think of CAS as a self-study course and CAAS as a guided workshop, but not necessarily in-person events.

CAAS is (needs to be) customized to individual client needs. CAAS must cater to the evolving demands of businesses in a changing economic, regulatory and technological landscape.
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

If AI Is Saving Time, Why Are You Still Working Late?

How fast (or slow) are accountants adopting AI? Depends on whom you ask.

Six Surveys. Eleven Answers.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Hourly billing is fading. Advisory is spreading. Artificial intelligence is freeing accountants to do more valuable work.

But agreement may end there.

The meanings of adoption, advisory and the AI dividend are leaving firm leaders with sometimes clashing pictures of how far the change is going.

MORE AI: Gen AI in Accounting: Epic Transformation, or Overheated Hype? | Intuit, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer: Accountants Question AI Promises | Caseware’s David Marquis: AI Can Do More Work but Auditors Must Make the Call | AI Accountants Cut Costs per Task to 21 cents from $10.35 | Your Next Hire Might Not Be an Accountant | It’s Not Just the Numbers

The problem surfaces again in a fresh series of surveys that tell different, even confusing, versions of the same story. One study finds advisory in 57 percent of surveyed U.S. practices. Another puts advisory or consulting at 94 percent in its U.S. sample. A pricing-platform survey finds little hourly billing for particular services. A broader practice-management benchmark finds most responding firms still use hourly billing.

Firm leaders are being shown evidence of progress, but the evidence does not consistently measure the same progress. READ MORE →

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Intuit, Thomson, Wolters Kluwer: Accountants Question AI Promises

At the big three user conferences, AI is changing the rules… again.

Vendors take center stage at user conferences. Logos: Thomson Reuters, QuickBooks, Wolters Kluwer

By CPA Trendlines Research

Over the next few weeks, Intuit, Wolters Kluwer and Thomson Reuters will be gathering their users in Las Vegas and Orlando, each bringing software and strategies that accountants fear could encroach on a firm’s client relationships.

Intuit Connect – Oct. 26-28, Aria, Las Vegas. Client books, monthly close, advisory, agents and the accountant relationship. More than 100 breakouts. Up to 12 CPE credits. Learn more
CCH Connections (Wolters Kluwer) – Oct. 25-28, Grande Lakes, Orlando. Tax and audit production, review, migrations and quality management. More than 90 sessions. Up to 19 CPE. Learn more
Thomson Reuters Synergy – Nov. 16-19, Fontainebleau, Las Vegas. Research, preparation, document workflows and engagement evidence. Combined professional audiences; separate general sessions. Learn more

The gap between firms and vendors provides a lens into the season. Intuit Connect, Wolters Kluwer’s CCH Connections and Thomson Reuters Synergy are pairing agentic AI demos with sessions on pricing, review, staffing and leadership. READ MORE →

CHARTS & GRAPHS

CPA PE Deal Tracker™: The Next Deal Cycle Comes into View

By CPA Trendlines Research

Going into the fourth quarter of 2026, Wall Street’s buying spree for accounting firms is cooling as platform firms digest a two-year surge of acquisitions and the earliest investors, from three to five years ago, begin to cash out, according to the CPA Trendlines CPA PE Deal Tracker™.

MORE Private Equity: Michael Hoover: Growth Without Discipline Comes at a Cost | Big 4 Transparency | CBIZ Told Grant Thornton No, No, No, Before Saying Yes | PE Already Knows Your Price. Do You? | How Private Equity Turns CPA Loyalty into Legal Risk | Ira Rosenbloom: PE Forces Firms to Pick a Future | The Disruptors | Allan Koltin: What Elite CPA Firms Do Differently | Gear Up for Growth

The October 2026 edition of the CPA PE Deal Tracker™ shows accounting’s private-equity deal flow easing in the third quarter, with 37 acquisitions in the U.S. and Canada, down from 42 a year earlier and a far cry from this year’s first-quarter surge of 58. The Tracker now counts 400 such deals in the U.S. and Canada since its records began in December 2016, plus 87 it has found elsewhere, for 487 worldwide, although its coverage outside North America is not systematic.

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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

One Times Fees Is Only One Way to Acquire a Firm

Businesswoman using calculator while reviewing something on laptop screen

If you do the math, you might be surprised.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide

Partners in accounting firms are familiar with the rule of thumb that a CPA firm’s goodwill is worth one times fees; however, like many “rules of thumb,” this notion is often incorrect.

MORE by Marc Rosenberg
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When buyers begin to think about how much they will pay for a smaller firm, they often have this one-times-fees notion in the back of their minds. Then, when sellers are bold enough to ask for a price in excess of one times fees, buyers often balk because they feel that the asking price is too rich.

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that buying a small firm for one times fees is a steal (for the buyer). In fact, it’s still an outstanding investment at a premium price, say, as high as 1.3 times fees. Let me illustrate.

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INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Michael Annichine: Why Women’s Health Belongs in the Career Conversation | MOVE Like This

Are women’s own healthcare needs being heard?
This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first and always available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing by Jody Padar, CPA | See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines Research podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, & Build a Top-Value Firm!

MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research

The 2026 Accounting MOVE Project report examines how caregiving affects women’s careers. A newly released MOVE Like This episode explores another part of that conversation: whether women’s own healthcare needs are being heard.

Supporting women’s careers requires understanding the lives they lead beyond work.

That connection comes into focus with the release of the 2026 Accounting MOVE Project report, Caught in the Middle: How Caregiving Pressures Are Reshaping Women’s Careers in Public Accounting, which examines how caregiving pressures affect advancement in public accounting. Among participating firms, 47% reported seeing caregiving slow progress toward promotion or partnership, and 76% said the career impact falls mostly on women.

MORE MOVE Like This | MORE Caregiving Research | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

Released alongside the report, this episode of MOVE Like This broadens the discussion to women’s health. Host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk talks with Michael Annichine, CEO of Magee-Womens Research Institute & Foundation at the time of the recording, about gaps in medical research, the importance of listening, and what happens when women’s concerns are dismissed.

The conversation offers a useful perspective for accounting leaders considering the report’s findings: Understanding what people need is only the beginning. Institutions also have to act on what they learn.

Editor’s note: This episode was recorded April 16, 2024. References to the president refer to then-President Joe Biden. Discussion of federal initiatives, research funding, and diversity, equity, and inclusion reflects the context at the time of recording.

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PRO Member Exclusive

The 85/15 Formula for Partner Pay

man's hand drawing upward arrow labeled "profit"Chart listing example profits of business units

Here’s a simple way to implement your distribution plan.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Let’s say your firm has five offices that handle audit/tax compliance services and two advisory and consulting lines of business (tax consulting and management consulting). Let’s refer to them as business units and let’s also say that net profits were generated as in the chart at right:

MORE by Domenick J. Esposito
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Let’s keep the example simple. Let’s assume that each of the seven business units is self-sustaining, and that certain high-performing business units do not have to “give” profits to others and that lower-performing business units do not have to “take” profit from others.
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INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk: Caregivers Caught in the Middle | The Disruptors

Accounting firms may offer flexibility, but outdated expectations and missed opportunities can still push experienced professionals out the door.

This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first and always available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing: Optimize Profits, Delight Clients, and Build a Top-Value Firm

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

The Break-Through Blueprint for Revolutionizing the CPA Firm Business Model

Accounting firms have spent years worrying about the front end of the talent pipeline. Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk wants them to look at the other end as well. 

Ruszczyk, owner and research lead of the Accounting MOVE Project, led this year’s MOVE report, Caught in the Middle: How Caregiving Pressures Are Reshaping Women’s Careers in Public Accounting. This new report examines what happens when experienced professionals take on care for children, aging parents, spouses and partners, and whether their firms keep them on the path to leadership. 

MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

MORE MOVE Like This | MORE Caregiving Research

That question matters because of the disparity in women’s representation in leadership at accounting firms.

Firms “tend to be pretty much 50:50 gender parity up until you get to the senior director, almost going to go into partnership,” Ruszczyk says. At MOVE firms, women hold about 42% of partner roles. Across all U.S. firms, that ratio drops to around 34%. For women of color, the drop is even sharper. According to Ruszczyk, about 20% of associates are women of color while only 5% of partners are.   

Caregiving isn’t the only cause for the disparity, but it is “one of the areas where we’re seeing some leaks spring up,” Ruszczyk explains. While caregiving has always been a part of the lives of accountants – men and women – several converging trends are making this a bigger issue today.

READ MORE →

ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Holistic Financial Planning: A One-Two Punch of Value

Vintage pocket watch lying on hundred dollar bills

Accounting continues to evolve in increasingly personal ways.

By Rory Henry
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

The accounting profession is evolving rapidly. New business models are emerging, and firms are uncoupling themselves from the constraints of a partnership structure, from outdated service offerings, and from time-based pricing practices.

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You may be asking yourself: “What business am I truly in?” or perhaps, “What business should I be in?” Before answering these questions, consider that you may ultimately be in the relationship business more than you’re in the tax, accounting or bookkeeping business. It doesn’t matter which training, certifications or acronyms you have following your name. If you’re moving into financial planning – or thinking about doing so – you might want to ask yourself: “Am I really in the human business?”
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